Channel search and catalog
Project: MAX
The MAX showcase is the public part of datool.ru that lists every public channel in the MAX messenger. Here you can find a channel by its title, @handle or link, see the largest channels, categories and the highlights of the day. You do not need to sign in.
Where to find it: the home page is https://max.datool.ru/, the channel catalog is https://max.datool.ru/channels/ (the “Channels” menu item).
Home page
The home page opens at max.datool.ru and from any page when you click the datool logo and the “MAX analytics” caption in the header.
First screen
- Search field “Channel name or max.ru/… link” and the “Search” button — open the catalog with search results (how search works is described below, in “Searching for a channel”).
- Quick links under the field: “Ratings”, “Categories”, “Today”, “Collections”, “MAX statistics”.
- Four totals on the right — how much datool.ru has collected from public MAX channels:
| Tile | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Channels collected | how many MAX channels are in our database |
| Posts | how many posts of these channels we have collected |
| Views | total views of all collected posts |
| Reactions | total reactions (emoji) to these posts |
Large numbers are abbreviated, for example “546 bn”. Hover over a number to see the full value. The totals are recalculated every 10 minutes. If you see “Figures are being calculated in the background — refresh the page in a minute” under the tiles, refresh the page a little later.
Largest MAX channels
The ten channels with the largest audience. Each row shows the place, avatar, channel title and @handle, the number of subscribers, the quality index (a channel score from 0 to 100; a dash means it has not been calculated yet) and the main category linking to its page. “Full rating →” opens the channel rating with a hundred places.
Channel categories
The twelve largest categories (topics) with a picture and the number of channels in each. Click a card to open the list of channels in that category. The “All 66 categories →” link opens the page with all categories. See Categories and regions.
Trending today and Collections
- Trending today — the three most viewed posts of the last 24 hours: channel, time, beginning of the text, views and reactions. Click a post to open its page. The “All … in 24 hours →” link opens Today in MAX.
- Collections — ready-made channel lists (government channels, channels with the A+ label, verified by owners, million-subscriber channels, new channels) with the number of channels in each. What each collection contains is described in Ratings and collections.
Note
The “Largest channels”, “Categories”, “Trending today” and “Collections” blocks use data that is recalculated once an hour. Until the calculation is ready (for example, right after a site update), the block is not shown — refresh the page later.
Cards at the bottom
- “Verify your channel” (for owners) — opens “My channels”. How to verify a channel and what you get — see Verify channel ownership.
- “API.Max” (for developers) — API description and pricing: channel data in your reports, services and AI assistants. The method reference is in the API section.
- “MAX statistics” — a page about MAX as a whole, see MAX statistics.
Site header
The header is the same on every showcase page. The first row holds the logo, projects, search and buttons; the second row is the section menu.
- “MAX analytics” — the project caption. Together with the logo it opens the showcase home page.
- “PROJECTS” — the menu of datool.ru projects. MAX analytics is live now; other projects are marked “coming soon”. If your organization subscribes to a project, a “Subscription active” label is shown next to it.
- Channel search — the “Search MAX channels: name, link or @handle” field. Press “/” on the keyboard to put the cursor into the search field from any page.
- “Sign in” — sign in and sign up (see Sign up and sign in). After you sign in, this button becomes “Account”. Its menu contains “Balance” (shown to the organization owner, with the remaining amount), “Subscriptions”, “Account” (the personal account), “Settings”, “My MAX”, switching between organizations (if you belong to several) and “Sign out”.
- Theme — switches between the light and dark look. Your choice is remembered in the browser.
- Language — the flag switches the interface between Russian and English.
- “+ Add a channel” — add a public channel that we do not have yet. See Add a channel.
- “Demo channel” — the page of an invented channel with every analytics tab open. See Demo channel.
Section menu (second row): “Channels” — the channel catalog, “Ratings”, “Collections”, “Today”, “Statistics”, “API” — API description and pricing, “Plans” — subscriptions and prices. The section you are in is underlined. On the right are “Knowledge base” (documentation, support, API, MCP) and “About us” (company, details, contacts, support, payment methods).
On a phone
On a narrow screen search opens with the magnifier icon, “Add a channel” with the “+” icon, and the section menu and projects are hidden behind the menu button (three lines).
Searching for a channel
You can search in three ways:
- by title — part of a word is enough: “spartak” finds every channel with that word in the title;
- by @handle — the channel’s public name in MAX, with or without “@”;
- by link — paste an address like
https://max.ru/channel_nameto find exactly that channel.
Letter case does not matter. Only public channels are searched. Private channels and group chats are not in the catalog.
Suggestions in the header
Start typing in the header search field and a list of channels appears below it. Suggestions appear once you have typed at least 3 characters (a link or @handle is searched immediately).
- The list shows up to 8 channels, largest first: avatar, title, @handle and number of subscribers. Click a row to open the channel page.
- If there are more channels, an “All results →” link appears at the bottom — it opens the catalog with the same query.
- Pressing Enter also opens the catalog with the results.
- If nothing is found, you will see “We don't have this channel yet. Check the spelling or paste a link to the channel in MAX.” and an “Add this channel →” link (if you searched by a max.ru/… link, an @name or a name in Latin letters, the query is filled into the Add a channel form) or “Add a channel by link →” (if you searched with words, the form opens empty).
Channel catalog
The catalog is max.datool.ru/channels/ (the “Channels” menu item). Search from the home page and Enter in the header search field lead here too. Without a query the catalog shows all public MAX channels right away, largest first: filters on the left, search, sorting and the channel list on the right.
Search. Type part of a name, an @handle or a link into the “Name, @handle or max.ru/… link” field and click “Search”. Search works together with the selected filters. If the query is shorter than 3 characters, the catalog does not search by name and asks you to type at least 3 characters; links and @handles of any length are searched.
Filters — the panel on the left. The number next to an option is how many channels in all of MAX match that option (other selected filters are not taken into account); the numbers are recalculated once an hour.
| Filter | What it keeps |
|---|---|
| Category | channels that have the topic as their main or an additional category. The eight largest topics are shown first, the rest are under “All categories”. Tagging is still in progress: the line under the list shows what share of channels already has a category |
| Subscribers | channel size: under 400, 400–1,000, 1K–5K, 5K–20K, 20K–100K, 100K–500K, 500K and more |
| Activity | posted in 7 days, in 30 days, or any — by the time of the last post |
| Region | a country, federal district or region — together with the cities inside it. Few channels have a region so far: their number is shown under the list |
| Marks | the A+ mark (the channel is in the Roskomnadzor register), verified by the owner on datool.ru, government channel (a handle like id<TIN>_gos) |
| Quality index | 75 and up (high), 60 and up, or any. Channels whose index is not calculated yet are left out when you pick a threshold |
Options checked within one filter add up: “News” and “Sports” give channels on at least one of the two topics. Different filters work together: “News” and “20K–100K” give news channels of that size. The list updates as soon as you choose; “Reset filters” under the panel clears them all.
On a phone
The filter panel is folded into the “Filters” button above the list — tap it to open. The number on the button is how many filters are selected.
Sorting — the buttons above the list:
| Button | Order |
|---|---|
| Subscribers | largest first (default) |
| Quality index | higher quality index first; channels without an index come last |
| Citations | higher citation index first |
| Recent posts | most recently posting first |
| New | by the date of the first post, newest first. Channels whose history is collected back to the very first post come first: for the others the first post date is not final yet |
The line above the list shows how many channels were found and in what order, for example “586,918 channels · largest first”. A page holds 20 channels; you can page up to page 500 (10,000 channels) — to see the rest, narrow the filters or the search.
Channel row:
| Part of the row | What it is |
|---|---|
| Avatar, title, @handle | click to open the channel page with analytics |
| Icons next to the title | the green A+ shield — the A+ mark from MAX; the blue badge — the owner verified the channel on datool.ru |
| Description | the start of the channel description from MAX, on one line |
| Labels | the channel’s main category and territory; click to open the list of channels in that category or region |
| Subscribers | the number of subscribers at the last check of the channel, shortened (“1.2M”); hover over it to see the full number |
| QI | the quality index from 0 to 100: green — 75 and up, blue — 60 and up, “—” — not calculated yet |
| Last post | when the channel last posted: “17 min ago”, “3 h ago”, “yesterday”, “12 days ago”. A green dot — within the last week, a grey one — long ago |
On category and region pages channels are shown as cards: avatar, title, @handle, description, category and territory labels, subscribers and “Posts collected” — how many of the channel’s posts are in our database. We collect the whole history of a channel from its first post, so for recently found channels this number grows for a while.
If the channel was not found
“We do not have this channel yet” means no public channel matches the query. What to do:
- Check the spelling — or paste the channel link from MAX instead of the title.
- If the channel is public but missing from the catalog, add it yourself: under the message there is an “Add this channel” button — it opens the Add a channel page with the link or @name from your query already filled in (if you searched with words, the button reads “Add a channel by link” and opens an empty form). It is free and needs no sign-in.
- A private channel does not get into the catalog: it can only be connected through owner verification, see Verify channel ownership.
See also
- Categories and regions — channels by topic and territory
- Ratings and collections — the largest and most cited channels
- Channel page — what channel analytics shows
- Add a channel